TCM gets boost from local health authorities

LOCAL health authorities plan to issue an official guide to traditional Chinese medicine experts and their specialities, giving people who seek TCM treatments a better idea of where to go and whom to consult.

The guide is part of a larger effort to make sure TCM remains alive and well, the Shanghai Health Bureau said yesterday.

"We lack, not TCM doctors, but skilled people who can lead different philosophies and pass down the knowledge, generation by generation," said Ji Weiping, director of the bureau's traditional Chinese medicine department.

A recent survey found that the average age of local TCM experts is 75 and that nearly half of the 49 well-known TCM schools of thought in the city have no successors.

The plan will help perpetuate five to 10 TCM approaches every year by supporting young and middle-aged leaders. All the city's leading TCM philosophies are to be covered within three years.

Email Story    Printable View    Blog Story    Copy Headline/URL